7th Sin: The Sequel to the #1 Hard Boiled Mystery, 9th Circle (Book 2 of the Darc Murders Series)

by Carolyn McCray

  This would be an awkward conversation to have with Trey.

  Mala rushed around to the driver’s side window, which Darc rolled down. “Are you okay?” she panted, her tone elevated in volume and higher in pitch than normal. Did that indicate concern? For some reason, that made Darc’s heart rate accelerate. That was a fascinating physiological response that he would need to investigate further.

  “I am unharmed.”

  “Okay, good.” Mala paused to take a breath. She seemed to have been running, and Darc could see that Janey was just now catching up to her. Mala must have seen Darc and sprinted to stop him. “There’s something I need you to see.” She pulled out a piece of paper that had been folded in quarters and handed it to Darc through the open window.

  Unfolding the page, Darc immediately recognized Janey’s work. “When did she draw this?”

  Mala’s eyebrows wrinkled together. “Last night.”

  “And you did not think to show it to me immediately?”

  “No, I didn’t.” Mala’s tone had deepened and sharpened. “Why on earth would I?”

  “This is the way that she and I communicate,” Darc answered.

  Raising her hands up, Mala’s eyebrows now lifted in concert with her limbs. “I had no idea.” Then a thought seemed to strike her, as her expression changed once more. Darc could not keep up with this ever-changing landscape of emotional responses. “So you were passing her messages when you…? You… I never would have allowed you to…” She stopped and took a long breath, pointing back at the drawing. “Just… look at the picture. Janey was adamant that you see it.”

  Darc studied the page in front of him. It was unlike any of the other communications the girl had given him. There were no symbols of certainty. In fact, the informational stream arising from the picture was filled with gray. Gray tendrils that entered in, leaving glowing bits of activated information in their wake.

  Beginning. Danger. Need.

  The picture was asking Darc to return to the beginning of the case. Something was there, something he had missed. At least that’s what it seemed to be asking. Again, it was gray and unclear.

  And now Darc himself was unclear. He could continue forward to pursue a concrete lead, even though the probability of success was small. Or he could go back to the precinct to follow… what? A feeling. An instinct. A guess.

  Darc stared down at the picture for a moment and then shifted the Rover into reverse. Nothing here made logical sense to him.

  And yet, somehow, the decision was clear.

  CHAPTER 25

  Well, Mala wasn’t exactly sure what had happened, but she was sure that something had. Where before Darc had been morose and dejected, now he seemed energized and focused. Not that there was a lot of outward manifestation of either one, but there was a distinct shift in his presence.

  It was one of the intangibles that so irritated Darc whenever Mala or Trey tried to bring them up. Although Mala was not confident that his reaction would be the same at this point. There seemed to be a fundamental shift happening in the way he not only handled himself, but also how he interacted with other individuals.

  Even this current moment was an example of how things had shifted. From what Mala could see, there was nothing concrete in what Janey had given Darc. And yet he had abandoned a solid lead with seemingly no qualms and was now digging up everything he could from earlier cases. Something that had discouraged him earlier was now the very thing he was determined to do. All because of a picture from a little girl.

  It didn’t make any sense, which for anyone else might not have seemed like such a big deal. They were more than a little stuck right now, so doing things that didn’t make a lot of sense were par for the course. But for Darc, even a small departure from the clear road that logic laid down was a huge neon sign pointing right at him, screaming, “Look at me! I’m a different guy than the one you thought I was!”

  As they walked back into the station, Mala waved Darc on ahead and stopped off to talk to a group of uniformed policemen close to the entrance of the precinct building. They were huddled around, joking about something that sounded strangely like the weight of a fish.

  “Excuse me,” Mala interrupted. All eyes turned to her, some with irritation at being interrupted, and at least one or two of them with a hint of appraisal. “Have any of you seen Deputy Attorney Van Owen?” Janey tugged at her arm, clearly more interested in keeping up with Darc.

  One of the cops, a short man with balding hair, responded. “The blond guy, right? He left just a few minutes ago.”

  “Did he say where he was going?”

  “Nah. But it looked like he had all his stuff with him. Jacket, briefcase. My guess is he’s back at the county office.”

  Mala thanked him and moved along on the way to Darc’s desk. She had hoped to at least thank Bryce for his offer of lunch. She’d left him pretty abruptly when Janey had found that picture.

  Back at his desk, Darc had immersed himself in the files of what looked like every single murder up to that point. It appeared that he had even gone back to the original file of Mala’s kidnapping. That was an experience that she hoped never to repeat.

  Thinking back to that time brought up a question that had bothered her since then. Might as well ask about it now.

  “Darc,” Mala said. “What did you guys do with that whole setup my kidnapper had built?”

  Darc looked up from the open file in front of him, his mouth set in a straight line. This was Darc, so that could mean that he was irritated or just that he had no idea what his expression looked like at the moment.

  “The scene was left intact. Once it was done being processed, it would have been locked up and left. There will be follow-up at some point, such as contacting the owners of the property.” Darc stopped, and then shuffled through some papers on his desk. He pulled up the copy of the rental agreement for the warehouse space, then picked up the phone and began dialing.

  “Darc, what are you doing?”

  “I am calling the power company.”

  Okay, that was not anywhere close to where Mala’s mind had been. They were in the middle of tracking down a killer, and Darc was checking on his electric bill? This was making no sense whatsoever.

  But apparently he had connected to someone on the other end of the line at this point. “This is Detective Darcmel with the Seattle Police Department. I need to check on the power consumption for the following address.” He gave the person on the other end the exact location of the warehouse. At least now it was clear that this had to do with the case, but Mala still had no idea what Darc was doing.

  A voice buzzed in the receiver, the sound of the conversation spilling out into the room in a small, tinny way. Darc began to hang up the handset, but then held it back up to his ear. “Thank you for your help,” he said, then hung up.

  Wow. Darc really was changing.

  And then Darc was leaving. He had gotten up, grabbed a couple of the files and his keys, and was headed toward the entrance almost before Mala had realized he was done speaking on the phone. So maybe the bald detective hadn’t changed too much.

  “Darc, what’s going on?”

  “The warehouse is consuming energy,” the detective intoned.

  “Right. Warehouses do that,” Mala replied.

  “Not empty ones. The amount of power being consumed is not from a light accidentally being left on. There are significant expenditures there.”

  And then Mala caught up, both physically and mentally. “So the killer’s keeping Trey there?”

  “There is a high degree of probability that such is the case.”

  “So we’re heading to the warehouse?” Mala asked, trotting to keep up with the fast-moving detective. Janey was now running alongside, her little legs pumping.

  “Yes.”

  “Darc, stop!” Mala grabbed his hand, halting his forward progress. “We have to figure some things out before we go.”

  “Such as?”

  “W
ell, such as what we are going to do with Janey, for one thing?” Mala knew that time was of the essence, but rushing in did not seem like the answer. “Plus, don’t we need backup or something?”

  Without further discussion, Darc grabbed Janey’s hand and swept her down the hallway at breakneck speeds. When they got to Captain Merle’s office, Darc went to push the door open and Mala restrained him by the arm. Wow. Sometimes she forgot how strong Darc was, especially when he was focused on a task.

  “Captain Merle? This is your plan?”

  Darc looked her straight in the eye. “Yes.”

  Well, Mala had no response to that. She allowed her hand to fall away as Darc opened the door to Captain Merle’s office.

  “Darc, what are you doing…?” Captain Merle looked at the girl, who was holding onto Darc’s hand with a death grip. “And who have we here? Janey, is that right?”

  “That is correct,” Darc responded. “And I need you to watch her.”

  There was a long pause, during which the captain’s face went from white to red to purple and then back to white. “I see,” he finally said, swallowing. “And might I ask why you are asking me to babysit this girl?”

  “We believe we have found where Trey is being held, and we do not wish to expose the girl to that level of danger.”

  “You found Trey?” The captain’s eyebrows rose at that statement. “Well… I suppose… You’re going to want backup, right?” He picked up his phone, presumably to call for support. Whether that support was for Darc and Mala or for the captain himself was unclear.

  “No,” Darc uttered.

  “No?” The captain replied, dumbfounded.

  “No?” Mala repeated, equally confused. What good would it do to have just the two of them there? The likelihood of them getting killed or captured seemed greater than that of them coming away with Trey intact.

  “The warehouse is equipped with surveillance cameras, both on the inside and on the outside. Additional policemen would add to Trey’s danger. It is possible that he will see Mala and I as less of a threat, and therefore, of little import.”

  Mala thought back to the last time that Darc had pressed for less police involvement. It had been back at the slaughterhouse, and so many officers had lost their lives because they had refused to take Darc’s admonition seriously.

  Captain Merle must have been thinking the same thing, as he immediately relented. “Understood. But I want you to have support within a block of where you are.”

  “That caveat is acceptable,” Darc replied.

  The captain harrumphed. “Well, I’m glad it’s acceptable to you.” He glanced at the girl and then back at Darc and Mala. “Well, go on. Get out of here.”

  Darc turned to leave, but Mala watched as Janey put her stuffed bear on the captain’s desk, facing the large, gruff man. The captain began to smile, seemingly in spite of himself.

  “Thank you for the bear, Janey.”

  It was sweet that the captain believed that Janey was offering him the bear. But as Janey went to take a seat on the couch that faced the captain’s desk, Mala could see that her lips were set in a slight scowl.

  As far as Mala could tell, the bear was there to keep an eye on the captain.

  *

  The face that appeared at the now-open door that led out of the mock bedroom wasn’t a surprise to Trey. The chainsaw at his side was.

  “Is that for me?” Trey asked. “Awww. You shouldn’t have. Really.”

  “Oh, this isn’t for you,” his captor chuckled. “I have something special planned for you, my frightened little detective.”

  Seriously, Trey should have seen who it was all along. Well, actually, no. Trey shouldn’t have, wouldn’t have, couldn’t have. At least not at first. But when you took everything into account, the emotional stuff as well as the practical how-the-hell-had-the-killer-known-that stuff, it only made sense. But Trey wasn’t about to tell this a-hole that.

  “So, it’s going to be something more special than death by dismemberment? To what do I owe this honor?” Trey was about to wet himself with fear, but he would be damned if he was going to give this guy the satisfaction of seeing it.

  “You should know. Your partner Darc gave you the pattern.”

  “Oh, I’m part of the pattern, am I? I feel like there should be some kind of plaque or something. You know… to put up on the mantel.” Trey thought for a second. “So, okay, I’m not dead yet. Plus, I’ve never really lied up on the stand. So I’m guessing I’m not the deceitful witness who soweth lies, right?”

  “Ah, arrogance and mockery. Exactly what I’d expect from someone like you.” The killer spat his words out, the tone acidic. Trey really shouldn’t poke the bear, but he couldn’t help himself. Besides, the chafing on his wrists from the chains was driving him totally freaking nuts.

  “Oh, okay. So it’s the sower of discord among brethren, is it?” Trey paused, thinking. “Yeah… not really seeing that one, either.”

  “Aren’t you?” Trey’s kidnapper chuckled in his throat. “You can’t think of anything that you have done that might cause some amount of discord?”

  “Well, there was that one time that I shaved ex-lax on Rodriguez’s French Silk pie, but I’m pretty sure no one knows about… Wait. Hold on.” If Trey’s hands had been free, he would have smacked himself on the forehead. “Is this about Darc and Maggie?”

  The killer sneered. “Behind your own partner’s back. With his wife. I’m shocked that you’re not writhing with guilt.”

  “Oh, there’s been plenty of guilt, dude,” Trey assured him. “But this is all old news. Yesterday’s headlines. Last week’s scandal.”

  “What do you mean?” the captor barked. Trey could have sworn that there was a note of insecurity in that light baritone voice.

  “I mean that Darc already knows. You missed out, man. Father John put it all out there right before he dropped a three-hundred-pound corpse on me from the ceiling of that crazy underground church.” Trey shrugged his shoulders, the chains clanking at his wrists. “Darc and I worked past it.”

  That seemed to give the man pause. Tension seemed to build up in his shoulders to the point that the chainsaw began to creep upward. Not a good development, as far as Trey was concerned. Then, it felt like all that energy leaked out of the killer.

  “It doesn’t matter. You have still sown discord. You are beyond even those the Father hates. You are the seventh whom His soul despiseth. You are slated to die.”

  “Listen, man. You know nothing about this. You think that this thing with Maggie and me is evil. You have no idea how it started and you have no idea what it is now.”

  The killer opened his mouth, apparently to argue the point, when the ding of a bell caught his attention. A smile formed across his face. “We can debate this a bit later, at a more… picturesque local. For now, we have company.” He turned and strode off, leaving Trey with the residual image of the chainsaw on his retinas.

  As far as Trey was concerned, the guy could take his sweet time coming back.

  *

  Well, Janey could tell that Popeye was not happy. Not even a little bit.

  That wasn’t so strange. Popeye wasn’t happy a lot of the time. But right now he wasn’t just unhappy. He was mad.

  First off, he didn’t like the captain. He wouldn’t say why, other than that he smelled like vegetable soup. Popeye hated vegetable soup. So he was keeping an eye on that captain guy. People who ate enough vegetable soup that they smelled like it were not to be trusted. At all.

  But he was also mad because he and Janey were always being left behind. Even after all the times that Popeye had helped. He’d let Janey hide a knife up his rear end, for crying out loud. If that didn’t get a bear a ride in a cop car, he didn’t know what would.

  Janey knew that Mala and Darc and Trey loved her and wanted her around, but sometimes it was hard when they went off and were doing stuff. It was always dangerous stuff. That was the only reason they ever left her.

>   Still, it wasn’t like she was a baby or something. She’d had lots of stuff happen to her and she hadn’t even cried. Popeye made a sound like he was trying not to laugh at her. Okay, she hadn’t cried much. Popeye was such a butthead. Janey wasn’t supposed to use that word, but it was true. He was.

  The captain man was looking at her but pretending not to look at her. Sometimes grown-ups were so weird. He was stacking some papers on his desk and he kept clearing his throat. Hrm, hrm, hrm.

  Popeye had an idea. It was a naughty idea, but Janey liked it. Did that make her naughty too? Well, even it if did, she wanted to try.

  It meant she had to pretend again. Pretending was fun, but sometimes it made Janey feel bad. Because pretending was like lying, especially when you were doing it to trick somebody. Even if you had to trick them.

  But Popeye was saying now, now, now, and even if it was lying Janey didn’t care. She was going to do it, so there.

  She started bouncing up and down in her chair. It was funny that when she did stuff like move around when she wasn’t supposed to there were some grown-ups that would get nervous. The captain guy was one of those grown-ups. He started looking at Janey more, and not even trying to hide it anymore.

  Popeye said that he had told her so. He thought he was such a smarty-pants.

  But just bouncing up and down in her chair wasn’t enough. She crossed her legs and made a face like she had to go to the bathroom. Grown-ups always let her do what she wanted to do when she crossed her legs and made that face.

  And sure enough, the captain guy stood up. “Do you have to go to the bathroom?” he asked.

  His voice was deep and growly. Kind of like what Popeye’s voice should have sounded like instead of that high squeaky voice. That made Popeye mad. You try going through the washer and dryer and see how you sound, he said. It almost made Janey laugh, but laughing wasn’t going to get her what she wanted. She nodded at the big captain man and squeezed her legs shut even more, bouncing up and down.